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Both the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation acted favorably on bills to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other aviation programs in June 2017. The two bills, H.R. 2997 and S. 1405, have significant differences, many of them related to provisions in the House bill that would create a not-for-profit private corporation to take over responsibility for running the national air traffic control system. The Senate bill contains no similar provisions, and the passage of long-term legislation will likely depend on whether both chambers can agree on an issue that they were unable to bridge last year. Disagreement on air traffic control reforms in the 114th Congress led to a one-year aviation extension (P.L. 114-190) that expired at the end of FY2017. A subsequent six-month extension (P.L. 115-63) is to expire at the end of March 2018.
Whereas S. 1405 would fund FAA programs through FY2021, H.R. 2997 would extend funding through FY2023 (see Table 1). Since the House committee bill provides that the proposed corporation would take over air traffic services starting in FY2021, it would eliminate all Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF) financing for FAA operations and air traffic facilities and equipment beyond FY2020. Consequently, taxes on airline tickets, cargo, and commercial fuel would be reduced by roughly 80% starting in FY2020. These temporary tax reductions would expire after FY2023, and would therefore need to be revisited in subsequent FAA reauthorization debate. AATF funding of facilities and equipment not directly tied to air traffic functions and general fund financing of aviation safety programs would continue through FY2023 under the House bill.
FY2018 |
FY2019 |
FY2020 |
FY2021 |
FY2022 |
FY2023 |
|
Operations |
||||||
10,132 |
10,349 |
10,571 |
1,957 |
2,002 |
2,047 |
|
General Fund |
2,059 |
2,126 |
2,197 |
1,957 |
2,002 |
2,047 |
Airport and Airway Trust Fund |
8,073 |
8,223 |
8,374 |
|||
10,123 |
10,233 |
10,341 |
10,453 |
|||
P.L. 115-63 (Oct. 1, 2017-Mar. 31, 2018) |
4,999 |
|||||
Airport Improvement Program |
||||||
3,597 |
3,666 |
3,746 |
3,829 |
3,912 |
3,998 |
|
3,350 |
3,750 |
3,750 |
3,750 |
|||
P.L. 115-63 (Oct. 1, 2017-Mar. 31, 2018) |
1,670 |
|||||
Facilities and Equipment |
||||||
2,920 |
2,984 |
3,049 |
189 |
193 |
198 |
|
2,877 |
2,899 |
2,906 |
2,921 |
|||
P.L. 115-63 (Oct. 1, 2017-Mar. 31, 2018) |
1,424 |
|||||
Research, Engineering, and Development |
||||||
181 |
186 |
190 |
126 |
130 |
132 |
|
175 |
175 |
175 |
175 |
|||
P.L. 115-63 (Oct. 1, 2017-Mar. 31, 2018) |
88 |
|||||
TOTALS |
||||||
16,649 |
16,999 |
17,366 |
5,975 |
6,107 |
6,243 |
|
16,525 |
17,057 |
17,172 |
17,299 |
|||
P.L. 115-63 (Oct. 1, 2017-Mar. 31, 2018) |
8,181 |
Sources: CRS analysis of H.R. 2997, S. 1405, and P.L. 115-63 (H.R. 3823).
Under H.R. 2997, FAA facilities and equipment would be transferred without charge to the proposed corporation, which would be run by a board comprising industry stakeholders. FAA would become principally a safety regulator, rather than managing air traffic control with its own employees.
The bill would authorize the proposed corporation to charge user fees to cover its costs. This has been a particular point of contention; although the bill would exempt noncommercial aircraft from user fees, general aviation and business aviation groups have opposed the user-fee model, fearing that fees could be charged more broadly in the future and that airlines would have too much influence over how the aviation system is run.
Proponents argue that the user fee model would charge airlines for the services they use, would resolve the issue stemming from airlines' increased use of untaxed ancillary fees, and would provide the corporation with a reliable long-term funding source to support investments in new air traffic control technology. Some Members of Congress have objected that aviation user fees, like the taxes they would supplant, should be subject to some level of congressional oversight rather than being left solely to the corporation's board.
The bills differ in how they address a number of other key issues: